Program table displaying apparatus

Abstract: A program table displaying apparatus includes a display controlling apparatus for displaying a program table for a plurality of programs in a table on a display. The table has a horizontal row with a channel number identifying a channel corresponding to one of the programs and a vertical row with a time number for the channel. The television program table is derived from a plurality teletext broadcasts. Also included is a program reserving apparatus for reserving a desired program by selecting one of the programs. A time comparing apparatus is further provided for comparing a current displayed time frame and the time number for the channel to determine if there is a corresponding program for the displayed time frame. Further provided is a minute information extracting means for extracting minute data corresponding to said corresponding program. A program title extracting apparatus is also included for extracting a program title corresponding to the corresponding program and a number of rows calculating apparatus is provided for calculating a number of rows from the minute data and the number of letters in the program title. Finally, a time frame determining apparatus is included for determining a corresponding time frame from the calculated number of rows.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a program table displaying apparatus for displaying a program table of different television programs from a number of channels on a television screen using data derived from teletext broadcasts and for reserving a program to be recorded by choosing the desired program from the table. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART Various methods for reserving recording television broadcasts for recording have been devised as a result of the spread of video cassette recorders. One of them is a recording reservation system (cf. BTA standard T-003) which broadcasts a television program table using a teletext broadcast from a transmitter The information necessary for recording a video for a cassette recorder is extracted from the television program table information at the receiver. A block diagram of a program table displaying apparatus using a teletext receiver in accordance with the prior art is shown in FIG. 1. A video signal having a text signal which is superimposed on the video signal during the vertical retrace period is inputted to a text signal extracting means 1, where a text signal is only extracted Program data of a television program table is extracted by a program table extracting means 2 from a certain program number (identity number) in the text signal extracted by the text signal extracting means 1. If the program number in the television program table has been previously determined, it may be frozen, and if it is not yet determined, it may be preset. Then, the program data of the television program table extracted at the program table extracting means 2 is stored in a buffer memory means 3. The program data of the television program table is read from the buffer memory means 3 in response to an indication by a presentation requesting means 4. Then the read data is decoded to text and pattern information at a teletext decoding means 5. The text and pattern information decoded at the teletext decoding means 5 is displayed on a display means 7 as a program table for a certain channel through a display controlling means 6. When a program is reserved for recording, a desired program is selected from the program table for that channel displayed on the display means 7 at a program reserving means 8, and the program selected at the program reserving means 8 is displayed on the display means 7 together with the program table for that channel after being processed (painted and so on) at the display controlling means 6. However, at the program table displaying apparatus in accordance with the above described prior art, a program table for only one channel is displayed on the screen. If users want to see a program table for a different channel, they must change the channel to the channel they want to see, and because the table form of the of the program table may be different for different channels, it is difficult to understand the program table at a glance. In addition to the above described prior art, Brugliera V "Digital On-Screen Display A New Technology for the Consumer Interface" presented at the 18th International Television Symposium and Technical Exhibition, June 1993, Montreux, Switzerland, and published 10th May 1993 discloses an outline of a prior art system for providing an interactive information system over a high-bandwidth cable network. The user is able to access a number of features offered by the cable service provider including Pay-Per-View Television, and on-line guides. The online guides are provided by the cable service provider, and the service as a whole relies on the high information capacity of the cable network. DE-A-3527939 discloses a method and apparatus for extracting current programme information from Videotext pages so that this information may be displayed on the screen. The title of the programme and a brief summary may be displayed for a single channel, or the current programs on two or more channels may be displayed. In addition, the invention allows for the display of the programme listing for a single channel at once. There is no provision for the user to view the programme listings of several or all the channels simultaneously, as in the present invention. Furthermore, in any of the above described prior art there is no distinction between programs which are reserved very often and programs which are not reserved often when recordings are reserved from the program table for a number of channels. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided a television programme table displaying apparatus for displaying a television programme table on a television receiver, said programme table including a plurality of broadcast channel designations and the respective programme titles of programmes broadcast on said broadcast channels, said programme titles being formatted into broadcast time band frames contained within said table, said programme table being compiled using teletext broadcast information from a plurality of broadcast channels, said apparatus comprising: display controlling means for controlling the display of said television receiver so that said television programme table is displayed; television programme reserving means for reserving a recording by selecting a desired programme from the programme table displayed by said display controlling means; time comparing means for comparing a certain time band frame in the programme table with time information from said television broadcast information of each of said plurality of broadcast channels; time information extracting means for extracting time information from said television broadcast information wherein said time information corresponds to the minutes past the hour of a broadcast time of those programmes broadcast on any of said plurality of broadcast channels of which the broadcast time was found to be within said certain time band by said time comparing means; programme title extracting means for extracting the programme titles of those programmes of which the time information was extracted by said time information extracting means; number of rows calculating means for calculating a value corresponding to the number of rows required in the certain time band frame in the programme table to display the programme titles of certain of those programmes of which the time information was extracted by said time information extracting means, wherein the certain of the programmes are all broadcast on the same one of said plurality of broadcast channels, and said number of rows calculating means further calculates a corresponding value for each of said plurality of broadcast channels; and time-band-frame display height determining means for determining a maximum of said values found by said number of rows calculating means, and using the maximum of said values for setting the display height of the certain time band frame in said television programme table to be the same for each of said plurality of broadcast channels. The present invention provides an advantage in that it allows simultaneously displayed programs for plural channels to be recognised. In addition, the program gives an appearance similar to a feeling like a television program column of a newspaper by arranging the program time for the channels to be displayed in order. In addition, there is the further advantage that the provision of the programme reserving means shortens the time necessary for recording reservation and improves the operability when a number of programs are reserved for recording simultaneously. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with the prior art. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an example of program table display using a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a flow chart for making a program table at a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a flow chart for calculating and storing a frequency a program is reserved in a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is an example of program table display using a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9 is an example of program table display using a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with the third exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with a fourth exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is an example of program table display using a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with the fourth exemplary embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (First exemplary embodiment) FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The blocks having similar functions to those in FIG. 1 are numbered the same. In FIG. 2, a broadcasting station name extracting means 10 extracts a broadcasting station name from the program table information. Time comparing means 11 compares the time displayed in a time frame with the time information in the program table for a certain channel currently displayed on the screen, and determines if there is a corresponding program to be displayed in the corresponding time frame. If a corresponding program is detected in the time frame by the time comparing means 11, minute information extracting means 12 extracts minute information of the corresponding program from the program table. Program name extracting means 13 also extracts program name information of the corresponding program from the program table, if a corresponding program is detected in the time frame by the time comparing means 11. Number of rows calculating means 14 calculates the number of rows from the minute information extracting means 12 for the time frame and the number of letters extracted at the program title extracting means 13. Time frame determining means 15 determines for the time frame the maximum value of the number of rows counted by the number of rows calculating means 14. Number of horizontal picture elements doubling means 16 doubles the number of horizontal picture elements of the ordinary teletext broadcast. Number of scanning lines doubling means 17 doubles the number of scanning lines of the ordinary teletext broadcast displayed by interlacing the lines in a manner similar to that employed in ordinary television receivers. Fount compressing means 18 compresses the letter size to 1/4 the letter size of the ordinary teletext broadcast. FIG. 3 is an example of the program table display using a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a flow chart for making a program table in the program table displaying apparatus in accordance with the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 4, first, a date (for example, August 31st) is set. Next, a time (for example, five o'clock) is set. Then, a channel number (for example, Channel #1) is set. A search of the program table information is then performed to identify a program corresponding to the set time and set channel by the time comparing means 11. If there is no corresponding program, the channel number is increased to channel #2 and a new search is performed to identify whether a corresponding program exists on the set time. If there is no corresponding program, a similar search is repeated for all the channels displayed on the screen. If a corresponding program exists for the set time, the minute information for the corresponding program to that time is extracted by the minute information extracting means 12, and the program name of the corresponding program is extracted at the program name extracting means 13. Then, the number of rows is calculated at the number of rows calculating means 14 using the number in letters in the title of each program title extracted by the minute information extracting means 12 and the program name extracting means 13. Now, assuming that the calculated value is N1, the channel is changed from station A to, for example, station B, where the program name information and the minute information of another program corresponding to the set time (5 o'clock) is extracted. Then the number of rows is calculated from the number of letters in the program title. The calculated value is assumed to be N2. Similarly, the calculated values for other channels are assumed to be N3 and N4. The number of rows for the set time frame is determined from a maximum value from the calculated values, N1, N2, N3, and N4 by the time frame determining means 15 so that the four channels can be displayed simultaneously. This process is similarly repeated for all of the rows. Once the time frame is determined, minute information and program title for each channel corresponding to each time frame is displayed simultaneously. The display of the four channels on the display means 19 by the number of horizontal picture elements doubling means 16, the number of scanning lines doubling means 17, and the fount compressing means 18 is shown in Fig. 3. The station name extracted from the program table information by the station name extracting means 10 is displayed on the display means. When a program is reserved for recording, as with the prior art, the desired program is selected from the program table from the channels displayed on the display means 19 by the program reserving means 8. The programs selected at the program reserving means 8 are highlighted, colored on the table display, by the display controlling means 6 and displayed together with the program table on the display means 19. The following methods can be used to store the program table information (1) Program table information from the teletext channel can be stored for every channel selection; (2) Program table information sent by stations using teletext broadcasting can be sequentially received when the television receiver is turned on and the program table information for all of the stations is stored. (3) Program table information sent by stations using teletext broadcasting can be sequentially received every day at a specified time when program table information is renewed, and at substantially the same time, the program table information for all stations are stored. (4) Program table information sent by stations using teletext broadcasting can be sequentially received at a periodic time interval every day providing updated program table information, and at substantially the same time, the program table information for all of the stations are stored. The program table display for the channels may be implemented differently. For example, the hour on the program table may be displayed in the center row as shown in FIG. 2, on the right side of the display as shown in FIG. 3, on the left side, or on both sides. (Second exemplary embodiment) FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The blocks having similar functions to those in FIG. 1 have the same reference numbers. Frequency per reserved program priority determining means 22 calculates and stores the frequency of a reserved program. Reserved program priority determining means 23 extracts the program's reservation frequency from the program table displayed on the screen and, based on the frequency calculated at the frequency per reserved program priority determining means 22, determines the priority order of the programs. Color processing means 24 highlights, colors, the high priority programs extracted at the reserved program priority determining means 23 on the program table displayed on the screen. FIG. 6 is a flow chart for calculating and storing the frequency a program is reserved in the program table displaying apparatus. FIG. 7 is an example of program table displayed on the screen. Referring to FIG. 6, the program to be reserved is selected at the program reserving means 8 from the program table displayed on the display means 7. The program data including day of the week, time to start, time to end, channel number, etc. of the program to be reserved is provided to the frequency per reserved program calculating and storing means 22 from the program table decoded at the teletext decoding means 5. The reserved program data for past reserved programs is stored in the frequency per reserved program calculating and storing means 22 in a 4-dimensional arrangement, F(day of the week, time to start, time to end, channel number), showing the day of the week, time to start, time to end, and channel number as parameters. The newly reserved program data is compared to the past reserved program data by comparing the day of the week, time to start, time to end, and channel number. When the new and past reserved program data coincide, that is, the same program was reserved in the past, the frequency of reservation is calculated for the program. When the data does not coincide, for example, for a special program, the frequency of reservation is not calculated. The frequency data is expressed in a 4-dimensional arrangement, F(day of the week, time to start, time to end, channel number) so that an incremental calculation, F(day of the week, time to start, time to end, channel number) =F(day of the week, time to start, time to end, channel number)+1 is executed to increment the frequency. If there is no past frequency data in the past, that is, for a newly reserved program, F(day of the week, time to start, time to end, channel number) is set equal to 1. When the program information is changed, for example, for a newly planned programs, the 4-dimensional arrangement, F(day of the week, time to start, time to end, channel number) corresponding to that program frame is erased. The high reservation frequency programs calculated at the frequency per reserved program calculating and storing means 22 are extracted by the reserved program priority determining means 23 and arranged in order according to frequency of reservation. Several programs having a high priority as determined by the reserved program priority determining means 23 are highlighted, colored, by the color processing means 24 and are displayed on the display means 7 through the display controlling means 6. For example, assuming that "Wide show" of Channel #3, "Theater" of Channel #2, "Movies A" of Channel #2, and "From 30" of Channel #4 are high reservation frequency programs of the program table shown in FIG. 3, only four of the programs are highlighted on the program table which is displayed on the display means 7 as shown in FIG. 7. In Fig. 7, the highlighted program is indicated by the shaded area. (Third exemplary embodiment) FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The blocks having similar functions to those in FIG. 5 are numbered with the same reference numbers. Channel number priority determining means 25 determines the priority order of the channels by assigning a priority to in the channels having a higher reservation frequency in the program table displayed on the display means 7, based on the frequency calculated at the frequency per reserved program calculating and storing means 22. Channel number priority changing means 26 changes the priority order of the channels according to the priority determined by the channel number priority determining means 25. FIG. 9 is an example of program table display using a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with the third exemplary embodiment of the present invention. When the program to be reserved is selected by the program reserving means 8 from the program table displayed on the display means 7, the 4-dimensional arrangement F(day of the week, time to start, time to end, channel number) is determined by the frequency per reserved program calculating and storing means 22 using the same procedure in the second exemplary embodiment. The channels having many high reservation frequency programs are extracted and their priority is determined by the channel number priority determining means 25. Emphasis is placed upon the terms of "day of the week" and "channel number". Then, the priority order of the channels are changed by the channel number priority changing means 26 in the order determined by the channel number priority determining means 25. Finally, the channels are displayed on the display means 7 through the display controlling means 6. In the program table shown in FIG. 7, for example, assuming that the highlighted, colored, (shaded) programs are the programs having a high reservation frequency and the program "From 30" of Channel #4 has a higher reservation frequency than the program "Wide show" of Channel #3, the priority order of the channels is Channel #2, Channel #4, Channel #3, Channel #1. The rearranged program table is displayed on the display means 7 as shown in FIG. 9. (Fourth exemplary embodiment) FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with a fourth exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The blocks having similar functions to those in FIG. 5 are numbered with the same reference numbers. User's own channel making means 27 makes a user's exclusive program table, inserting the programs selected at the reserved program priority determining means 23 in the first vertical row of the program table by time. FIG. 7 is an example of program table display using a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is an example of program table display using a program table displaying apparatus in accordance with the fourth exemplary embodiment of the present invention. When the program to be reserved is selected at the program reserving means 8 from the program table displayed on the display means 7, the 4-dimensional arrangement F(day of the week, time to start, time to end, channel number) is calculated at the frequency per reserved program calculating and storing means 22 using the same procedure in the second exemplary embodiment. The programs having a high reservation frequency are extracted and their priority is determined at the reserved program priority determining means 23 in the program table decoded at the teletext decoding means 5 using the 4-dimensional arrangement, F(day of the week, time to start, time to end, channel number) calculated at the frequency per reserved program calculating and storing means 22. Then, at the user's own channel making means 27, the programs selected at the reserved program priority determining means 23 are substituted in the corresponding frame in the first vertical row of the program table. Thus, a user's own program table is created and displayed on the display means 7 as shown in FIG. 11. According to the first exemplary embodiment, a program table for different channels can be displayed on the screen like a program table of a newspaper, using program information from teletext broadcasts. The broadcasting station names are displayed by their names, not by numerals. The simultaneous program display for the different channels similar to a newspaper allows the channels and programs to be easily recognized at a glance. According to the second exemplary embodiment, by highlighting, coloring, the programs having a high reservation frequency, when the programs are reserved for a number of simultaneously displayed channels, the user's ability to recognize a desired channel is improved, the time required to reserve a program is shortened, and recording of the reservation is made easier. According to the third exemplary embodiment, by arranging the priority order of the channels according to the reservation frequency, the recognizability of a program is improved, the time required to make a reservation is shortened, and making the reservation is made can easier. According to the fourth exemplary embodiment, by displaying the user's own program table in which only the programs having a high reservation frequency are gathered in a first vertical row of the table, the recognizability of programs are improved, the time required for making a reservation is shortened, and making a reservation is made easier. The invention may be embodied in other specific form without departing from the essential characteristics thereof. The scope of the invention is indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

Claims: A television programme table displaying apparatus for displaying a television programme table (19) on a television receiver, said programme table including a plurality of broadcast channel designations and the respective programme titles of programmes broadcast on said broadcast channels, said programme titles being formatted into broadcast time band frames contained within said table, said programme table being compiled using teletext broadcast information from a plurality of broadcast channels, said apparatus comprising: display controlling means (6) for controlling the display of said television receiver so that said television programme table is displayed; television programme reserving means (8) for reserving a recording by selecting a desired programme from the programme table displayed by said display controlling means; time comparing means (11) for comparing a certain time band frame in the programme table with time information from said television broadcast information of each of said plurality of broadcast channels; time information extracting means (12) for extracting time information from said television broadcast information wherein said time information corresponds to the minutes past the hour of a broadcast time of those programmes broadcast on any of said plurality of broadcast channels of which the broadcast time was found to be within said certain time band by said time comparing means; programme title extracting means (13) for extracting the programme titles of those programmes of which the time information was extracted by said time information extracting means; number of rows calculating means (14) for calculating a value corresponding to the number of rows required in the certain time band frame in the programme table to display the programme titles of certain of those programmes of which the time information was extracted by said time information extracting means, wherein the certain of the programmes are all broadcast on the same one of said plurality of broadcast channels, and said number of rows calculating means further calculates a corresponding value for each of said plurality of broadcast channels; and time-band-frame display height determining means (15) for determining a maximum of said values found by said number of rows calculating means, and using the maximum of said values for setting the display height of the certain time band frame in said television programme table to be the same for each of said plurality of broadcast channels. A television programme table displaying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: broadcasting station name extracting means for extracting the broadcasting station name from the television teletext broadcast information from the plurality of broadcasting channels. A television programme table displaying apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said display controlling means comprises: number of horizontal picture elements doubling means for doubling a dot frequency for doubling the number of horizontal picture elements of the programme table; number of scanning lines doubling means for doubling the number of scanning lines of the programme table by interlacing; and font compressing means for reducing the size of said teletext broadcast information received from said plurality of teletext broadcasts to be included in said programme table. A television programme table displaying apparatus according to any of the preceding claims and further comprising: programme reservation frequency calculation and storage means for calculating the frequency of selection of a particular programme which has been reserved for recording by said television programme reserving means, and storing the resultant reservation frequency value. A television programme table displaying apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:- reserved programme priority determining means for determining the priority of reserved programs based on the reservation frequency value calculated by said programme reservation frequency calculation and storage means. A television programme table displaying apparatus according to claim 5, and further comprising: colour processing means for highlighting reserved programmes when displayed in said television programme table if the priority of said reserved programmes is high. A television programme table displaying apparatus according to claim 4, and further comprising:- broadcast channel priority determining means for determining the priority of each of said plurality of broadcast channels using the said reservation frequency values of programmes broadcast on each of said channels; and broadcast channel priority changing means for changing the order of said plurality of broadcast channels in said television programme table in response to the priority of each of said channels found by said broadcast channel priority determining means. A television programme table displaying apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising: user's own channel making means for creating a user's television programme table by grouping the programmes with a high priority in a specified area of said television programme table. A television programme table displaying apparatus according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said time-band-frame display height determining means further comprises means for setting the display height of the time frame corresponding to the certain time band for the one of said plurality of broadcast channels to be the maximum of said values found by said number of rows calculating means for said certain time band when said time comparing means does not find the broadcast time of any programme broadcast on one of said plurality of broadcast channels to be within said certain time band.

Inventors: HENMI HIDEMI, HIRASHIMA MASAYOSHI, MONTA HIROKI, HENMI, HIDEMI, HIRASHIMA, MASAYOSHI, MONTA, HIROKI
Applicants: MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC IND CO LTD, MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD.
Application year: 1994
Main classification: H04N5
IPC codes: H04N5, H04N7, G11B15